WASHINGTON: Chinese President Xi Jinping warned on Wednesday that a confrontation between the United States and China would be a disaster for both and for the entire world.

President Xi, on his first day of a weeklong visit to the United States, urged both nations to better understand each other’s “strategic intentions” and avoid tensions.

“We want to see more understanding and trust and less estrangement and suspicion. Should they enter into conflict and confrontation, it would lead to disaster for both countries and the world at large,” he said.

US President Barack Obama will host his Chinese counterpart at the White House on Friday, when Mr Xi will begin his official state visit. This reciprocates President Obama’s state visit to China in November 2014.

But relations between the two world powers had started to strain even before the White House announced the visit last week.

Earlier this month, US officials claimed that China had launched a massive cyber attack on American businesses and government agencies. The Chinese rejected the allegation as baseless.

President Xi said that China itself was a victim and was ready to set up a “high-level” mechanism with the United States to discuss the problem.

US officials and lawmakers also identified cybercrime, building of an island in the disputed South China Sea and lack of cooperation to combat climate change and human rights as their main concerns.

President Xi tackled most of these issues in his address to US trade leaders in Seattle, Washington on Wednesday, and offered to work with the United States on fighting cybercrime.

He appealed for “a new model of major country relationship” and urged the United States and China to better understand each other’s “strategic intentions.”

He assured American leaders that Beijing was not seeking conflict with its largest trading partner despite stressed relations in a number of areas.

Addressing another major US concern, President Xi promised to treat US investors in China fairly.

He also stressed that China’s economic downturn was temporary and that the government was on top of recent market turmoil.AFP adds:

HENRY KISSINGER: Xi Jinping was introduced by legendary US diplomat Henry Kissinger, who made the first secretive effort in 1971 to restore long-broken relations with China and who praised Xi as the man able to take the relationship to a new level.

The Chinese leader charmed his audience with quotes from Martin Luther King, recollections of former visits to Seattle and knowing references to popular US culture, including the romance comedy “Sleepless in Seattle”.

He also responded to criticisms that China’s tough new security law will effectively outlaw foreign non-governmental organisations, saying the country welcomed and would protect those whose activities “are beneficial to the Chinese people”. But he also stressed they had to obey Chinese law.

Published in Dawn, September 24th , 2015

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